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The 30-day .BANK Sunrise Period just concluded this week and is notable for several reasons. Unlike the hundreds of unrestricted TLDs that have launched in the last 18 months, here, the trademark owners were not motivated by concerns of cybersquatting or brand tarnishment on their brands. The registry’s eligibility requirements virtually eliminate any potential for cybersquatting.

The 30-day .BANK Sunrise Period just concluded this week and is notable for several reasons.

The majority of banks are community-based and do not have registered trademarks that would be eligible for the Trademark Clearinghouse. Nonetheless, banks registered nearly 800 trademarks in the new TLD. Many of these trademarks were added to the Trademark Clearinghouse solely for the .BANK TLD. At a retail price averaging more than $1000, the total dollar amount spent by bankers on these two activities is well over $1 million dollars.

The General Availability Period for .BANK kicks off on June 23 at 8pm ET. The level of interest is very high, especially among the 6,000 plus community bankers spread across the U.S. For example, EnCirca has pre-orders from all 50 U.S. states.

.XXX domains can be registered for just $19 until April 30 (versus standard pricing of $99). Provides eligibility for the May priority phases for .Adult and .Porn. Buy all three by April 30 for just $39. Whois privacy allowed and the names do not need to resolve.

In contrast to the news about trademark owners being charged high prices to protect their brand names, The registry operator for adult-related websites is taking an opposite approach.

Brand owners who apply for a three-TLD bundle of .xxx/.adult/.porn essentially get the .xxx tld for free. No registered trademark is required. Also, privacy services are permitted.

The pricing promotion that ends on April 30 enables EnCirca to offer .xxx registrations for just $19 versus normal pricing of $99.

Even better, brand owners who apply in April become eligible for the Domain Matching phase in May for .Adult and .Porn. Again, with pricing that doesn’t suck, EnCirca offers a package deal of $39 if ordered before the end of April.

Amid all of the controversy about the .SUCKS Registry, the Registry behind the adult content TLDs is taking the opposite approach and offering trademark owners really really low prices for trademark protection. Best of all, no federal trademark is required.

Amid all of the controversy about the .SUCKS Registry, the Registry behind the adult content TLDs is taking the opposite approach and offering trademark owners really really low prices for trademark protection. Best of all, no federal trademark is required nor is submission to the Trademark Clearinghouse.

The ICM Registry is now launching .PORN and .ADULT. This is the same Registry behind .XXX and the .SEX TLD launching in the fall of 2015.

The .XXX Registry launched in 2011 had over 80,000 blocks by trademark owners. In 2015, there are only 35,000 records in the Trademark Clearinghouse eligible for the .PORN and .ADULT Sunrise periods. Thus, to reach the larger potential market, the Registry has added launch phases that are open to all business and celebrities, without the requirement of a federal trademark or submission to the Trademark Clearinghouse.

In addition, to ease the pain even more, ICM has essentially dropped its prices for all three TLDs. This has allowed registrars like EnCirca to lower its pricing from the standard $99/year to as low as $13 for the first year for all three TLDs.

The .BANK-Accredited Registrar EnCirca announces a webinar for the .BANK top-level domain extension will be held on March 25 at 2pm ET. The webinar is free for all bankers interested in learning more about the new .BANK top-level-domain extension. Additional webinars are schedule in April and May. To view the full webinar schedule and pre-register, bankers can visit ….

EnCirca Announces a free webinar series for the .BANK top-level-domain. Copy of press release below.

BOSTON, March 24, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — The .BANK-Accredited Registrar EnCirca announces a webinar for the .BANK top-level domain extension will be held on March 25 at 2pm ET. The webinar is free for all bankers interested in learning more about the new .BANK top-level-domain extension. Additional webinars are schedule in April and May. To view the full webinar schedule and pre-register, bankers can visit www.encirca.com/bank.

The webinars will be presented by subject-matter-experts on .BANK and trademark protection, including:

Thomas Barrett – President of EnCirca, the first .BANK accredited ICANN Registrar and the only Registrar serving on the .BANK Security Standards Working Group

John McElwaine – Partner in the law firm of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, focusing his practice on Trademark and Domain Name matters.

The .BANK Webinar will include the following topics:

The benefits of .BANK domains

Eligibility for .BANK domains

Name selection criteria for .BANK

How the .BANK verification process works

The launch phases for .BANK

How to participate in the TMCH Sunrise Period for trademark owners

The pricing for .BANK

How to best position banks to get their desired name(s)

The launch timeline for the .BANK domain extension consists of two main phases.

Sunrise Period: May 17 – June 17, 2015
Eligibility is limited to banks that have registered their trademark with the Trademark Clearinghouse.Note: Banks must have already registered their trademark with a national trademark office in order to participate in the Trademark Clearinghouse.

General Availability: Starting June 23, 2015
First-come, first-served registrations begin for all eligible banks.Note: This is the first opportunity for most banks to register for a .BANK domain.

Banks who are unable to attend the webinar and would like to start the pre-screening process today, may visit www.encirca.com/bank. Banks anywhere in the world are eligible to apply.

The keyword “Porn” has consistently appeared in the top ten list for internet searches since…well, forever. But .Porn is not just for adult content, says ICM Registry. How obsessions about shoes and cupcakes may benefit the .Porn TLD.

How obsessions about shoes and cupcakes may benefit the .Porn TLD

It appears that Trademark Owners are moving fast to protect their brands in .Porn. And that may signal that .Porn could be the biggest new gTLD launch in the era of the Trademark Clearinghouse.

During a live webinar last week for trademark owners, the ICM Registry said that the combined .Porn/.Adult TMCH Sunrise Period that kicked off on a week ago is on track to be the largest Sunrise Period to date for Trademark Clearinghouse-coordinated Sunrises.

The keyword “Porn” has consistently appeared in the top ten list for internet searches since…well, forever. But .Porn is not just for adult content, says ICM Registry. Unlike .XXX, there are no requirements to actually have adult-related content on websites for .Porn or .Adult. They point to the trend of “Porn” being used in everyday lexicon. As illustrative examples, check out these work-safe examples:“Food Porn”, “Shoe Porn” and “Cupcake Porn”.

The Sunrise Periods still have three more weeks to go before they end on March 31. But before General Availability kicks in, the Registry, which also operates the .XXX TLD, is planning several additional opportunities for trademark owners who sell cupcakes, as well as the cupcake lovers themselves, to secure .Porn and .Adult domains ahead of the general public.

Owners of .XXX registrations and blocks from 2011 are being given priority for registering the same domains in .Porn and .Adult before the general public. But for ANYONE who missed or skipped .XXX, a new window has opened up.

Any .XXX registration that takes place today will also be eligible for the .Porn priority period. As a further incentive, ICM Registry has dramatically lowered their pricing for .XXX names created in the month of April. For example, EnCirca has lowered its pricing by 80% from normal pricing.

ICM Registry has also lowered its pricing for the priority registration periods as well. Again, as an example, EnCirca has also lowered its .Porn priority phase pricing by 80%.

Approximately 80,000 .XXX blocks were reserved back in 2011 by trademark owners. Once .XXX launched, many more trademark owners and brands jumped into .XXX as well. Given that the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) currently only has about 35,000 trademarks, this means that there are still a lot of trademark owners and businesses out there who are not be in the TMCH but may still want to ensure they control use of their brands in .Porn.

TMCH Sunrise during the month of March
The TMCH has worked with ICM Registry to offer a pricing reduction for any submissions that are used during the .Porn and .Adult Sunrises via Sunrise Clearinghouse Agents

Sunrise B for .Porn and .Adult during the month of April

This period is for the trademark owners who participated in the .XXX Sunrise B blocks. It gives this unique group a priority registration opportunity in .Porn and .Adult, and the Registry has created special pricing incentives to allow 5 year registrations for these names.

.XXX Registrations during the month of April

This is the last opportunity to become eligible to participate in the .Porn Domain Matching Program mentioned below. An .XXX registration by April 30 enables the registrant to participate in the priority phase in May.

Domain Matching Priority Phase during the month of May
This phase is for owners of .XXX domain names as of April 30, 2015. .XXX owners are eligible to get their directly matching names in .Porn and .Adult before the general public.

General Availability for .Porn and .Adult starts June 4

With typical pricing of $99 each for .Porn and .Adult for General Availability, by participating instead in any of the priority phases, cupcake retailers as well as cupcake aficionados are able to get significant savings.

As an added benefit, similar priority phases are likely when ICM Registry launches .Sex in the Fall.

Some recent auctions of dot-travel geonames show that there is some building interest. Recent sales prices include:

– seattle.travel: $591…

The dot-travel TLD launched over 7 years ago but has been largely overlooked. But with the batch of travel-related TLDs that launched in 2014, such as .holidays and .vacations, the .travel TLD is starting to get some attention.

Some recent auctions of dot-travel geonames show that there is some building interest. Recent sales prices include: